The bank surprised markets with first-quarter results that meaningfully exceeded analyst forecasts, even if those had been significantly reduced since the year's start. After two preceding quarters, in which Citi failed to meet already lowered expectations, a revelation of fraud in Mexico and a rejection of Citi's capital-return request by the Federal Reserve, discovering the ball hadn't been yanked away this time was a welcome change.

The bank's performance was all the more notable following a sharp decline in profit and revenue at JP Morgan Chase. In particular, an 18% decline in Citi's fixed income-markets revenue and 1% drop in overall revenue from a year earlier were smaller than declines its bigger rival reported Friday.

Unlike JP Morgan, Citi grew its business lending. Companywide lending grew 3%, which is a bit better than the aggregate loan growth of loans at US banks reported in Fed data for the first quarter.

Notably, the drag on profit from the bank's precrisis mortgage holdings diminished—although perhaps not by as much it might appear at first glance. Legacy holdings shrank by 23% from a year before and losses in this area were $284 million, compared with $804 million a year earlier. This progress got an assist from a one-time gain on a debt transaction and unrealized mark-to-market gains on holdings that together were equal to roughly $200 million.

Nonetheless, it is now possible the legacy holdings could run on a break-even basis in the not-too-distant future—provided the US housing market and the broader economy don't falter.

Citi also shaved $1.1 billion off the deferred tax assets it built up largely as a result of losses during the financial crisis. Those are a drag on Citi because they tie up around $41 billion in tangible equity.

And although getting stuck in the Fed's penalty box almost certainly wrecked the chances of Citi achieving its target of 10% return on tangible equity by the end of 2015, the bank made progress toward its other financial goal of raising its return on assets to 0.90 to 1.1 percentage points, hitting 0.89 in the first quarter.

Of course, laying a boot on the ball doesn't mean the game is won—much less the season. But at least Citi investors weren't left flat on their back again.